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Book Reviews and Writing Tips

Thursday, August 29, 2013

I’m not a romance genre reader, but this was a good book and
kept me interested.Madeleine has no
idea that she has two other sisters until her father dies in Colorado and leaves the three girls his
ranch because he had nothing else left to give them.Grant Tyler felt like he needed to do
something because he was a terrible father.That right there was enough to intrigue me to want to read this book and
see how the girls reacted to each other and what would happen in their lives,
which would turn upside down by this event.I wasn’t disappointed.

Madeleine never even knew her father and only saw him once
while growing up.He was a sperm-donor
for her mother who wasn’t a good role model.The girl grows up with many issues.

When Madeleine leaves Florida,
where she works in real estate, she is out of her element.She is having trouble finding the ranch she
has never been to.She stops on the side
of the road when she gets a flat tire and is standing there with a map and a
highlighter to mark the route when Luke sees her as he’s driving by and pulls
over to help.Luke isn’t happy when he
finds out that she now owns the ranch, along with her two new sisters.Luke used to own the ranch and was looking
forward to living on it one day, but while he was in Durango starting his business, his father
sold it to Madeleine’s father in order to get money for Leo’s (Luke’s brother)
medical treatments.

Madeleine usually has her life in order, but that changes
once she’s in Colorado
where her life turns to total chaos.There is a lot of animosity between Madeleine and her new sisters.One of them leaves in a huff soon after
arriving to go back to California.The other, Libby, attempts to work out a
relationship with Madeleine who really wants no part of it.She just wants to sell the ranch and get back
to her structured life in Florida.

There are several twists and turns along the way, but that
only added to everything that was going on.Luke and Madeleine fall into a romantic relationship, but the reader
doesn’t know where this is going yet because Madeleine doesn’t want to stay in Colorado and Luke does.

The characters are all believable.Luke’s brother, Leo, is a very good role model
because he’s determined and doesn’t let his handicap get him down, even though
his disease is incurable.This is the
first in a trilogy, so I think the future two books will be about the other two
sisters and a climax to Madeleine’s relationship with Luke.

This book was very easy to read and entertaining as well.I recommend it.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

This is what I’m working on right now with my first mystery
book, so I’m making an effort to cover all my bases by reading a lot of good
hints about “do’s” and “don’ts.I came
across a good blog by an author living in the England, Mike Wells.Reading this interesting post may help you
avoid the pitfalls you can plunge into while revising your book.

This post is specifically about why books are rejected by
agents and set aside by readers, but I think it’s also useful if you’re self
publishing your work.The same thing
would still apply because, of course, we don’t want our book set aside by
readers.

A brief summary:

Story starts too slowly.

Story is not as advertised.

Too many characters introduced too quickly.

No clear-cut point of view.

Story has no distinct main character.

Too much bio/back-story info is presented.

Flashbacks used too often and/or too early.

Opening scenes lack enough tension to pull the reader along.

One or more scenes do not advance the plot.

Reader cannot emotionally connect with the main character.

Too many seemingly unrelated plot threads.

Narrative is description-heavy.

Description is loaded with “purple prose,” particularly the
opening paragraphs.

Dialogue is not interactive enough.

Story starts too quickly.

All of these are such good points to think about and
sometimes I wonder why I can pick up traditionally published books and
experience one or more things on this list.I’ve been looking at my WIP to see how many of these things I’m guilty
of doing.Mr. Wells goes into this a lot
more in his well-written post that you can find here:

Thursday, August 15, 2013

It’s amazing to me how I find myself always reading about
writing if I’m not writing.I’m not sure
why that is.You’d think that you’d
eventually reach a burnout stage.However, my quest for knowledge goes on even if I’ve read about the same
writing topic numerous times before.That is one way of getting something through my thick skull, repeat and
repeat.I think maybe that all this
reading will eventually make me a better writer.

I do know my imagination goes wild when I’m working on a
story and my characters always seem to take over and take me places that I
didn’t have in mind when I got started.I guess that’s a good thing.It’s
entertaining for me to see what they will be up to next and keeps me writing to
find out.In fact, I find it hard to
shut my mind off and that isn’t a good thing because it leads to a lot of sleep
deprivation.

My characters, although fiction, become real people to me as
I go on with my story.I think of them
as actual people that I know and it’s almost sad to finish a book and close
them away within the pages.Do any of
you form a personal attachment to your characters?

Sunday, August 11, 2013

I think the answer to this is YES.It helps to have a little insanity.Why else would we keep writing, always
staying positive even when we hit the low spots?Real writers keep writing and never seem to
give up no matter how many times we meet rejection.

I read an article by someone awhile back and I was thinking
‘boy, does this hit the nail on the head’.I’m definitely like this, always thinking my current work is better than
the last one and THIS ONE IS IT, the one that will sell more copies than any other
will.I’m always eternally optimistic
like this.

Of course, these days, not as many of us send off queries to
publishers, or at least I think this is getting to be less common with self-publishing
becoming more popular.We have to face
the facts that the chances are slim that any of us will end up with a
publishing contract with a big publishing house.Meanwhile, we’re all getting older as we wait
for a response from the bog boys that may take months, and will probably be an
adamant no, in which case we start the process all over again.I can go on and on with dozens of reasons to abandon
the query process and self-publish your book.

Aside from all the previous problems I mentioned, if you
self-publish you could keep more of your royalties.Today, we have to do our own marketing
regardless.

But, even if we choose this route, what keeps us writing
even if we know we won’t sell a single book?Way down deep, I always have that impulse to keep going when all seems bleak
and useless.There is always that spark
that says ‘I won’t give up’ and ‘I feel so good about this, it doesn’t really
matter if anyone else likes it as much as I do’.This is the way I am.There’s no denying that.I never really get discouraged because it
seems to be enough to get my story out there.I have never planned to make a living writing anyway.If I ever do, that will just be icing on the
cake because I really love what I do.

When a ‘normal’ person looks at this, I’m sure they think
I’m irrational and delusional.I know my
partner does because he tells me I live in a fantasy world several times a
day.I’ve heard this so much that I
almost believe it myself, although I know this isn’t trueI have a vivid imagination and a lot of drive
to do my best and keep striving toward that goal, which is writing, even if it’s
against all odds.

With so many writers out there, it is almost impossible for
anyone to find me on the internet.It’s
a case of constant marketing, which I’m not very good at in any way.I’d rather be writing my next book, which I
know will be the ONE, and better than all the rest so far.I rewrite and polish, and publish, and then
start the process all over again.Many times,
I’m doing this before I have entirely finished the last masterpiece.

It’s a writer’s life and I like it quite a bit, and hope I
live long enough to write at least another dozen books, as I always have
stories flooding my mind.

“The ones who have been published are the ones who don’t
quit.”I’ve seen this quote in several
places and I agree with this, whether you’re waiting on the traditional
publisher or self-publishing your work.It all takes endless determination to make it through the process.

I think I’ll always have this disease called ‘irrational
optimism’ because it seems to filter into all areas of my life, not just in my
writing world where I spend most of my dayWhen I’m on a deadline, I always feel I can do it, no problem. I even tell myself that I’ll get it done
somehow, even if I know deep down that I won’t.Those thoughts keep me going to the end I guess, with anything I do.

It’s time to get off my unicorn now and join real life for a
while.Until next time, enjoy the
journey we’re on and keep writing.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

I came across this article on one of the Linked In groups I
follow.This checklist is for all kinds
of writing. I think parts of this would
be good to review when blog writing or book writing.In any case, it’s interesting.This article is from Pamela Vaughan on
HubSpot.You can read the full article
here:

My first foray into creating a fiction writer’s group here
has gotten underway with the first meeting last Saturday.After quite a few pitfalls, including the
paper printing the wrong address, we did have five people show up so Heather
and I were pleased with that for the first time out.

Everyone is just getting started in the writing field, but
that’s okay.We’ll see where this
goes.We figured we would get a spy from
the other group because there is a rumor they want to start up a fiction area
as well since that is lacking here.Time
will tell if we’ll make a go of this or not.It’s still something we want to do, so you have to go for it and hope
for the best.

We haven’t paid for any advertising and have used numerous
means to get the word out.We’re hoping
word of mouth will spread around as time goes by.We have a nice, mixed group so far.

This has taken up a lot of time, so I’ve yet to write the
end of my mystery book.I’m very close
now.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

I met another writer on Linked In who lives close to
me.We are starting a writer’s group
here for fiction writers.There are
already a couple of groups here, but they concentrate on memoirs, poetry and screen
writing.They are very disorganized and
get off-track at the meetings.Because
of this, you can’t learn much about writing or anything at all about fiction.We decided a fiction writer’s group is what
we need, so we used our time this last week in getting the word out and getting
organized to take this on.

We are doing everything free so far, all advertising, which
consists of a free area in the local paper to post events.We have also posted notices at the library
and other places around town, as well as put an ad on Craigslist.

We sat down this past week and worked out the agenda for out
first meeting this coming Saturday.She
was able to book the community hall in her housing complex.We have printed up our own handouts for the
group.Everything is looking good so
far.We’ll see how Saturday goes.We think we’re ready and have managed to get
a few phone calls for our efforts, so if those people actually show up we’ll be
in business.

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Welcome to my Ramblings

I may chat about my books, what I'm writing or reading, or just general thoughts about writing and publishing. Comments are welcome, if anyone wants to interact with me. I'd like to hear about your writing and publishing experiences.